Speaking Torah Vol 2: Spiritual Teachings from Around the Maggid's Table
The most powerful Hasidic teachings made accessible--from some of the world's preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality.
"The teachings of Torah, from beginning to end, are read here as a path toward liberation, a way of uplifting your soul and allowing it to journey homeward, back to its Source in the oneness of all being. Or, even better, to discover that oneness right here, in a loving but transformative embrace of both world and self."
--from "To the Reader"
While Hasidic tales have become widely known to modern audiences, the profound spiritual teachings that stand at the very heart of Hasidism have remained a closed book for all except scholars. This fascinating selection--presented in two volumes following the weekly Torah reading and the holiday cycle, and featured in English and Hebrew--makes the teachings accessible in an extraordinary way.
Volume 1 covers Genesis, Exodus and Leviticus, and includes a history of early Hasidism and a summary of central religious teachings of the Maggid's school. Volume 2 covers Numbers and Deuteronomy and the holiday cycle, and includes brief biographies of the Hasidic figures. Each teaching is presented with a fresh translation and contemporary commentary that builds a bridge between the eighteenth and twenty-first centuries. And each teaching concludes with a dynamic round-table discussion between distinguished Jewish scholar Arthur Green and his closest students--the editors of this volume. They highlight the wisdom that is most meaningful for them, thus serving as a contemporary circle's reflections on the original mystical circle of master and disciples who created these teachings.
Volume 2 of a 2-volume set
Earn by promoting books
Earn money by sharing your favorite books through our Affiliate program.
Become an affiliate
Rabbi Ebn Leader is director of the Bet Midrash and an instructor in Talmud, Jewish law and Jewish mysticism at the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College. He is the coeditor of God in All Moments: Mystical and Practical Wisdom from Hasidic Masters, and has contributed to Jewish Mysticism and the Spiritual Life: Classical Texts, Contemporary Reflections (both Jewish Lights). Prior to coming to Hebrew College, he served for several years as an educator at Jewish secondary schools in Jerusalem and Boston.
Ariel Evan Mayse is a doctoral candidate at Harvard University.
Arthur Green, PhD, is recognized as one of the world's preeminent authorities on Jewish thought and spirituality. He is the Irving Brudnick professor of philosophy and religion at Hebrew College and rector of the Rabbinical School, which he founded in 2004. Professor emeritus at Brandeis University, he also taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the Reconstructionist Rabbinical College, where he served as dean and president.
Dr. Green is author of several books including Judaism's Ten Best Ideas: A Brief Guide for Seekers; Ehyeh: A Kabbalah for Tomorrow; Seek My Face: A Jewish Mystical Theology; Your Word Is Fire: The Hasidic Masters on Contemplative Prayer and Tormented Master: The Life and Spiritual Quest of Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav (all Jewish Lights). He is also author of Radical Judaism (Yale University Press) and coauthor of Speaking Torah: Spiritual Teachings from around the Maggid's Table. He is long associated with the Havurah movement and a neo-Hasidic approach to Judaism.
The Jewish Chronicle--In their streimels and spodiks and long white socks, the Chasidim can seem a world apart. But they have left their mark on the wider Jewish community. The shift away from formal cantorial liturgy to sing-along melodies familiar to many synagogue-goers today owes a good deal to the Chasidic experience.
The early Chasidic masters also bequeathed a profound body of teachings, a way of reading the stories of the Torah as spiritual parables to cultivate inner devotion. This two-volume anthology, compiled by one of the great scholars of our times, Arthur Green, now opens the shutters on largely previously untranslated material.
Arranged according to the weekly Torah cycle, it presents a selection of excerpts from different sources for each sidrah, followed by a short discussion among Professor Green and fellow enthusiasts on how they might appeal to a modern mind; the Hebrew original is printed at the back.
The pioneers of Chasidism were ready to resort to creative wordplay to unlock fresh interpretations from the text. For example, the Ba'al Shem Tov, the movement's founder, gave an alternative explanation to the verse in the Yom Kippur haftarah Do not turn away from your own flesh--usually understood as a warning not to shun the poor--to mean that you should not repudiate your own physical needs.
Such bold readings entailed a rejection of asceticism and a belief that God could be worshipped through the body--a radical notion that put the Chasidim at odds with the intellectual elitism of their opponents.
--Simon Rocker "The Jewish Chronicle"
